File photo The Northeast and upper Midwest are hardest hit by black-legged deer ticks, shown in this file photo, which carry Lyme disease.

A researcher who aided in mapping the risk of Lyme disease in a national study released this week, said New Jersey was "loaded."

"Lots of ticks, lots of deer and lots of people," said Durland Fish, a principal investigator for the study, which was funded by the Center for Disease Control.

Fish, a professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, said 80 tick hunters visited more than 300 sites — mostly public and wooded areas — across the country looking for black-legged deer ticks, known as Ixodes scapularis. They found the Northeast and upper Midwest are hardest hit by the ticks, which carry Lyme disease.

According to the state Department of Health, there were 3,320 cases of Lyme disease in New Jersey in 2010, said spokesman Daniel Emmer.

The results were published in the monthly journal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Lyme disease symptoms include a rash, headaches and fever to arthritis, and Bell’s palsy, according to the society.

Fish said the map also revealed ticks are "expanding their range," migrating into areas such as Virginia.

"It has to do with deer populations," adding that populations could spread further into Pennsylvania and the Midwest. "They travel with them."

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Fish said Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed because its symptoms are not that specific and a blood test can sometimes yield false positives. Fish said he hopes this new map will show people, and the health community, where they are likely to get the disease.

"Physicians and the public should be aware and people should be treated," he said. "If you’re in an area where there’s a high risk, take precautions. In areas where they’re aren’t any ticks, doctors should be cautious of making a diagnosis of Lyme disease before they treat patients for a disease they don’t have."

John Halperin, medical director of the Atlantic Neuroscience Institute at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, said the map shouldn’t scare people.

"Lyme disease is very treatable and it’s rarely ever a lethal disease," said Halperin. "There are risk everywhere — smoking, car accidents, air pollution, asthma — no matter what you do there are risks. Fortunately this is a manageable one."